I am very much a beginner at java programming, and
this my first problem that I have not been able to
resolve via the Sun documentation.  Those docs
describe an "import static" construct which would
obviate the need for constantly prefixing, say,
"Math." in front of each occurrence of functions like
abs(), max(), cos(), etc.  It does not work for me.  I
must be missing something.  Eg., why does the
following java program fail to compile?:

______________________________________________________________________
import static java.lang.Math.*;

class TestApp {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       System.out.println("abs(-1): " + abs(-1));
   }
}
______________________________________________________________________

I believe I was following the advice to be found here:

  http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/interpack/staticimport.html

But I get:
______________________________________________________________________
D:\dv\java>javac TestApp.java
TestApp.java:1: <identifier> expected
import static java.lang.Math.*;
      ^
TestApp.java:1: '.' expected
import static java.lang.Math.*;
                             ^
2 errors
______________________________________________________________________

I installed the SDK using a file named
j2sdk-1_4_2_07-windows-i586-p.exe, which I believe is
current.

Regards,
 David V.